This site went live in October 2010 to flesh out technology and legality of CYBER PRIVATEERING as I wrote DADDY'S LITTLE FELONS. The novel pays homage to my old friend Judge Pat Brian, who died of pancreatic cancer on June 28, 2010.To get updates as new articles are posted, enter your email below:

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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Projected Larry Ellison opinion on Microsoft+Skype

I've had a week or so to mull the Microsoft acquisition of Skype. Then out of the blue David Bryce, a BYU professor acquaintance of mine who'd just written an article for the Harvard Business Review, asked me my opinion on the acquisition. I figured he needed an unpolluted opinion, so I sent him the following before reading his HBR article:

Microsoft has entered the Novell-state-of-continuous-decline, and Skype is technologically bankrupt and only worth the acquisition for their customer base. Larry Ellison (Oracle) once said of CA's acquisition of Ingres and ASK, "Well, every ecosystem needs a bottom feeder." Alas, Microsoft has become a bottom feeder. Of course, with their existing base of zombies, they can do a perfect job of ratcheting down for another generation, just like Novell has done. I've been using Internet telephony for a decade, and the top of the technology heap is a company called 8-by-8 (formerly Packet8). Given Skype's enormous security holes, they're a perfect partner for Microsoft (still the number-one target for cyber criminals). Microsoft's security problems are architectural, as are Skype's. Which may well demonstrate the adage, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." That said, as a stockholder, I'd applaud the acquisition (just as Bill Gates has done), because it will buy the poor devils some time.

Even in yesterday's news story (1 in 14 downloads have Microsoft-targeted malware attached), Microsoft is the number one target for cyber criminals and rogue governments. Add to that Skype's stellar security record, and you have that metaphorical bull's eye just waiting for mischief. Hop into your time machine and visit Novell two decades ago. Visit Microsoft in two generations and you'll have today's Novell. After reading the HBR article, I added this note to my professor friend:

The "kicker" is that what Microsoft SHOULD do with the added time this acquisition gives them is to totally rewrite a new operating system (built for security), fork it to a compatible cloud architecture, and slowly jettison their old OS (like Apple did with MAC OS vs OS X). There is a precedent: This is probably before your time, but Microsoft's Excel blew Lotus 1-2-3 out of the water by cleverly seeing where the price/performance curve on processors and operating systems was going. Lotus kept doing business as usual and look what happened. Microsoft is making the same mistake. Larry Ellison and I have had a number of conversations on this over the years, so I can't claim full credit for the insight.

When I had the above-referenced conversation with Ellison, I think I commented to him that he sounded like Mao Tse Tung in his burn-it-to-the-ground-every-year mentality. He agreed, saying that he was never EVER satisfied with the status quo. He then laughed and shared with me that Bill Gates had called him and invited him to join a Redmond brain-storming session about the future. He said, "Do you think I'm going to let Bill Gates and his team pick MY brain? Get serious!"

So if my "Vulcan mind meld" with Larry Ellison is still functional after lo these many years, I believe his advice to Microsoft would be as follows:

Give a billion dollars to a wholly owned subsidiary with the charter to "destroy Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Apple, and Facebook. Give them cross-licenses to ALL patents under your control, indemnify them against future lawsuits Microsoft may lodge against them, and then get the hell out of their way. If they win, you and your stockholders win. And if they burn all the money, you've only squandered a billion. Chump change considered the 8-plus billion you're blowing at the 30-times multiple for Skype. Oh yes, and another billion should go to 1000 CYBER PRIVATEERS who can rat out cyber criminals to you and to the FBI. Or you can do business as usual and become another Novell.

And for the record, Larry has followed the above advice, investing in companies that could put Oracle out of business. He's made a lot of money for his stockholders on those investments as well as keeping Oracle on its toes.

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Implementation suggestions for THE MORGAN DOCTRINE are most welcome. What are the "Got'chas!"? What questions would some future Cyber Privateering Czar have to answer about this in a Senate confirmation hearing?

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Background: Welcome black hats, white hats and cyber swashbucklers

The Revolutionary War was fought, financed, and pretty well WON by bonded privateers, legalized pirates who were given Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the Continental Congress and authorized to attack, capture and monetize British ships. The purpose of this site is to explore the possibility of a modern-day doctrine much like the Monroe Doctrine, by means of which the U.S. government could legally and, more importantly, effectively stop international hackers. Current cybercrime law is not only ineffective, but downright stupid. My Linux servers are attacked hundreds of times a day (mostly from China and former USSR domains), yet if I retaliate against those servers with some creative technology at my disposal (I know some VERY smart guys), then I am in violation of federal law and subject to some onerous penalties. We need more than a new law. We need a new international doctrine. I call it The Morgan Doctrine, named after Morgan Rapier, a fictional character I've created (hey, this is my way of establishing ownership of the concept, should it ever see the light of day).

Why a new international doctrine? Simply, nothing else will work. Introduced on December 2, 1823, the Monroe Doctrine told the world to keep their hands off the Americas. Combine this with current legal thinking on "hot pursuit" of fugitives. In 1917 the US Army went into Mexico after Pancho Villa. More recently, in 1960 Israeli Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Granted, much of the world regards the Eichmann adventure as a violation of international law. I don't share that opinion and therefore use it as the third leg of my Monroe-Pancho-Aldof platform for The Morgan Doctrine.

If someone comes into your home and attacks or attempts to rob you, you may shoot them dead. You may do so as long as they expire on your property. But what about cyber criminals? They attack you in your home from their homes. Retaliate in kind, and you go to jail. The Morgan Doctrine states simply that if you attack my computers (or my banking assets held in US-based computers), then under a certain set of well-defined conditions, a licensed and bonded "cyber privateer" may attack you in your home country and split the proceeds with the U.S. government. For the sake of argument, let's call it a 50-50 split (heh heh).

Right now, American law enforcement is completely unequipped to deal with the sheer number international cyber hackers. Sure, I could report each of the thousand daily attacks to the FBI, as could the millions of other attackees in the USA. But the volume of such reports would make any meaningful resolution laughable. Not to mention that the FBI has no jurisdiction outside the USA. Yet to make such "enforcement" profitable to recognized (ie, "bonded" "deputized") privateers, as Heath Ledger's Joker said in his last role, "Now you're talking!" You raid our bank accounts, we raid yours. You make money from off-shore child pornography, we're going to loot your bank accounts and, with some REALLY creative black hat operations, you will be taken off the grid worldwide to the extent that you'll not even complete a cell phone conversation for the remainder of your miserable depraved life. Okay, that last part probably won't fly, but you get my drift.

The purpose of this site is to explore the mechanics, legalities and practicality of The Morgan Doctrine.

And I will be the sole arbiter of whether or not your comments get posted. As Mel Brooks wrote, "It's good to be king."